The invention relates to a yarn winding apparatus and method for winding a continuously advancing yarn into yarn packages.
A yarn winding machine of the described type is known from DE 23 64 284 and corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,715. In that machine, a continuously advancing yarn is wound to a package. After the package is fully wound, the yarn is automatically changed from the full package to an empty tube. In this process, the yarn is guided by a yarn transfer device in such a manner that it is received by the empty tube. To this end, the full yarn package and the empty tube are mounted on respective winding spindles, which are arranged in cantilever fashion for rotation on a spindle turret. To transfer the yarn, the full package is rotated from a winding position to a doffing position and the empty tube from the doffing position to the winding position by rotating the spindle turret. Further, to transfer the yarn, it is necessary to lift the yarn by means of the yarn transfer device out of a yarn traversing mechanism. This yarn traversing mechanism comprises a traversing unit and a grooved roll. The grooved roll is arranged directly upstream of the package being wound and is partially looped by the yarn. For depositing the yarn on the package, the yarn is guided in a yarn guide groove in the roll.
Consequently, the known yarn transfer device guides the yarn by means of a yarn guide in a wide loop outside of the yarn traversing mechanism. Such great deflections generate correspondingly high yarn tensions. These yarn tensions may lead to a breakage of the yarn before it is caught on the empty tube.
It is accordingly the object of the invention to further develop a winding machine of the initially described type in such a manner that the yarn is transferred from the full package to the empty tube as gently as possible, so that during the transfer, the yarn tension undergoes a smallest possible fluctuation.